JPH0489680A - Disk cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress the generation of error caused by drop-out, etc., as much as possible by interposing a cleaning means, for which fine holes are formed, mainly composed of resin between a jacket and an information recording / reproducing means. CONSTITUTION:Between jackets 11 and 31 and the information recording / reproducing means mainly composed of resin is interposed with the fine holes formed on the surface. In this case, foreign materials such as dust, etc., can be caught and held for a long time. Thus, it is especially effective for the disk cartridge enabling high-density recording, the generation of error caused by drop-out, etc., can be sufficiently reduced, and high reliability can be secured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a disc cartridge capable of recording/reproducing information, and particularly to a cleaning means therefor.

(Prior Art) In recent years, with the spread of personal computers and personal word processors, disk cartridges such as 3.5-inch floppy disks have come into widespread use because they are inexpensive and easy to handle. It has become.

Taking a 3.5 inch floppy disk as an example,
Its configuration will be explained. This floppy disk consists of a disc-shaped magnetic disk in which a magnetic layer is formed on a support such as a polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter abbreviated as PET) film, which is rotatably housed in a pair of upper and lower jackets. There is.

A metal hub is installed in the center of this magnetic disk to transmit rotation from the drive device, and a hub exposure hole is formed in one jacket to expose the hub to the outside. .

Further, each of the pair of upper and lower jackets is formed with a head insertion opening so that the magnetic head can come into contact with the stored magnetic disk. A shutter movable on the jacket is installed in engagement with a suppression spring so that the head insertion port is normally closed and released when installed in the drive device.

In order to remove foreign matter such as dust on the surface of the magnetic disk, a material such as polyethyl fiber or rayon fiber as shown in FIGS. 3(a) and (b) is placed between the pair of upper and lower jackets and the magnetic disk. A liner sheet made of non-woven fabric is installed. FIGS. 3(a) and (b) are
This figure shows photographs taken using a scanning electron microscope of rayon fibers and polyether fibers, which are typical fibers constituting liner sheets.

Further, between the lower jacket and the liner sheet, a pressing member made of PET film or steel is installed to press the liner sheet onto the surface of the magnetic disk in order to improve cleaning performance on the surface of the magnetic disk. 5
An inch-sized floppy disk is configured.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Incidentally, in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for increased storage capacity for disk cartridges such as the above-mentioned floppy disks.

Methods to meet these demands include achieving high linear density recording by using high-output disks and narrowing track spacing by making full use of servo technology, and various research and developments are being carried out in various places.

However, as these methods have been used to increase the storage capacity of disk cartridges, the following problems have arisen.

That is, since large-capacity disk cartridges perform recording/reproduction at a much higher recording density than conventional ones, the recording density is 0.1 to 1.
Even if foreign matter such as very fine dust of 0 micron size adheres to the disk surface, it will be enough to cause errors due to dropouts.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk cartridge in which the occurrence of errors such as dropouts is sufficiently reduced even in a disk cartridge that performs recording/reproduction at high recording density. This is the purpose.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention is a disc cartridge comprising a disc-shaped information recording/reproducing means capable of recording/reproducing information and rotatably housed in a jacket. , a cleaning means mainly made of fibers with micropores formed on the surface is interposed between the jacket and the information recording/reproducing means.

(Function) As mentioned above, by installing a cleaning means mainly made of fibers with micropores formed on the surface in contact with the disk surface, it is possible to sufficiently remove foreign substances such as fine dust that could not be captured with conventional methods. can be removed from the disk surface.

- We conducted various experiments on the mechanism by which foreign objects such as garbage are captured by the liner sheet used as a means of leaning while fishing on a boat, and found that foreign objects such as large particles are captured between the fibers that make up the liner sheet, while foreign objects such as small particles are captured on the surface of the fibers. It was found that they can be captured by adhering to them.

However, according to the conventional liner sheet, 0.1 to 1.0
It did not have the ability to sufficiently capture and retain foreign matter such as microscopic dirt.

On the other hand, since the cleaning means of the present invention is mainly made of fibers with micropores formed on the surface,
Even foreign matter such as dust as small as 1.0 microns can be sufficiently captured and retained by the micropores formed on the fiber surface. Further, foreign objects such as garbage of a size that has been a problem in the past can be captured using the same mechanism as in the past.

As a result, errors caused by dropouts due to foreign matter such as dust can be sufficiently eliminated, and high reliability as an information recording medium can be ensured.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, as an embodiment of the disk cartridge of the present invention, a 3.5-inch magnetic disk cartridge will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows a magnetic disk cartridge (1) of this embodiment.
Fig. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of A in Fig. 1.
-A schematic cross-sectional view taken along line A'.

This magnetic disk cartridge (1) includes a disc-shaped magnetic disk (41) rotatably housed in a pair of upper and lower jackets (11) and (31). A metal hub (51) is fixed to the center of the magnetic disk (41) with an adhesive (not shown), and a center hole (53) formed in the center of the hub (51) and a center hole are formed in the center of the magnetic disk (41). Rotation from a drive device (not shown) is transmitted through an engagement hole (55) formed at a position offset from (53). An exposure opening (35) for exposing the hub (51) to the outside is formed in the center of the lower jacket (31).

Further, the pair of upper and lower jackets (u) and (31) are provided with a head insertion opening (for bringing the magnetic head (not shown) of the drive device (not shown) into contact with the surface of the magnetic disk (41). 33) is formed, and normally, in order to prevent foreign matter such as dust from entering through the head insertion port (33), a metal member having a roughly U-shaped cross section is formed to cover the head insertion port (33). A shutter (61) made by the company is installed.

This shutter (61) is usually connected to the head insertion slot (33).
The jacket (11) covers the magnetic disk (41) so as to expose the magnetic disk (41) from the head insertion slot (33) when chucked in a drive device (not shown).
, (31) a pressing spring (not shown) movable on the top.

) is engaged and installed.

As shown in Fig. 2, liner sheets (19), (39) made of non-woven fabric are installed between the upper and lower jackets (11), (31) and the magnetic disk (41). (31) Lifter installed on (
37) in the direction of the magnetic disk (41) to remove foreign matter such as dust on the surface of the magnetic disk (41).

These liner sheets (19) and (39) are shown in Fig. 3(c).
A polyester fiber with an average diameter of 20 microns, on which various micropores with a diameter of 0.1 to 1.0 microns and a depth of about half the diameter or more are randomly formed, has a film thickness of 20 microns.
It is partially thermally welded so that the thickness is 0 microns.

Polyester fibers with an average fiber diameter of 20 microns were used, but fibers with an average diameter of 10 to 50 microns can be used, and materials other than polyester such as acrylic, nylon, polypropylene, etc. can be used. This is due to the fact that the main component is fibers with an average diameter of more than 50 microns) (19).

(39), liner sheet (19), (39)
) becomes small, making it impossible to obtain sufficient leaning properties. Further, it is very difficult to manufacture fibers having micropores with an average diameter smaller than 10 microns, and it is also difficult to ensure sufficient durability as fibers.

In addition, the diameter of the micropores formed on the fiber surface is 0
．． In the range of 1-5.0 microns, the depth of the micropores is more than half the diameter. In particular, foreign matter such as fine dust can be captured well. In particular, fibers with such micropores can increase the contact area between the fibers and foreign matter such as dust of 0.1 to 1.0 microns, which cannot be captured on the normal fiber surface. Captured foreign matter such as garbage can be sufficiently retained.

For example, FIG. 4(c) is a scanning electron micrograph showing the state in which foreign matter such as dust is trapped in the liner sheets (19) and (39) of the above-mentioned magnetic disk cartridge (1). It can be seen that even foreign objects such as garbage are sufficiently captured. On the other hand, the same figure (a) is a scanning electron micrograph showing a state in which foreign matter such as dust is captured by rayon fiber and (b) by polyester fiber, and the liner sheet (19) mentioned above, (39
), it can be seen that foreign substances such as fine dust are not sufficiently captured.

As mentioned above, by making the liner sheets (19) and (39) of the magnetic disk cartridge (1) have a unique structure, it has become possible to capture foreign matter such as particularly fine dust to a greater extent than before. In addition, since foreign matter such as dust is reliably held by the micropores, it is possible to prevent foreign matter such as dust that has been captured once again from adhering to the surface of the magnetic disk (41). As a result, in the magnetic disk cartridge (1) of this embodiment, it was possible to suppress the occurrence of errors such as dropouts as much as possible.

That such an effect can be obtained can be understood from, for example, the following experiment.

In addition to the magnetic disk cartridge (1) described above, there is also a magnetic disk cartridge using a liner sheet formed by partially heat-welding rayon fibers with an average fiber diameter of 20 microns to a film thickness of 200 microns; Each magnetic disk cartridge uses a liner sheet consisting of ultra-fine M fibers with a diameter of 2 microns that are partially heat-welded. ; ultrafine particles) was used to investigate dust removal performance.

As for dust particles having a particle size of 10 microns or more, all magnetic disk cartridges showed good dust removal performance. However, regarding dust with a fine particle size of 1 micron or less, the magnetic disk cartridge (1) of this example exhibited dust removal performance eight times that of the rayon fiber liner and nearly twice that of the ultrafine fiber liner.

Also, the degree of abrasion of the liner sheet is 5℃.

The various magnetic disk cartridges described above were installed in a drive device under a cycle environment of 30% RH to 52° C. and 50% RH, and were rotated and examined.

As a result, although there was no major abrasion in any of the 3 million running passes, the degree of abrasion of the ultrafine fiber liner sheet became extremely large after 6 million running passes, whereas the rayon fiber liner or the liner sheet of this example (19 ),
(39), no large scratches were observed at all.

In this way, the magnetic disk cartridge (1
) has a sufficient capture and retention function not only for foreign matter such as dust of the size that has been a problem in the past, but also for foreign matter such as fine dust of 0.1 to 1.0 microns. , high cleaning performance can be ensured. Therefore, even with a magnetic disk cartridge that performs higher density recording than conventional magnetic disk cartridges, it is possible to minimize the occurrence of errors such as dropouts.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the magnetic disk cartridge (
Since the liner sheets (19) and (39) of 1) generate very little dust due to abrasion of themselves, they are ideal for magnetic disk cartridges of higher density recording type and faster rotation type than conventional ones.

In the magnetic disk cartridge (1) of the above-mentioned embodiment, a cleaning means is used in which the fibers are thermally welded to form a sheet. However, as a cleaning means, there is also a method in which the fibers are bonded with an adhesive to form a sheet. It may also be constructed by flocking perpendicularly to the surface of the jacket.

Even with a cleaning means configured by flocking hair in this manner, sufficient effects can be obtained.

Further, the micropores formed in the fibers may be formed through the fibers, but it is preferable to make the micropores formed to a predetermined depth as described above to prevent foreign matter such as dust. It is preferable for the present invention because it increases the contact area with the fibers and improves the retention performance.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the disk cartridge of the present invention, it is possible to capture and retain foreign matter such as garbage for a long period of time, which was previously impossible to sufficiently capture and retain. can. This is particularly effective for disk cartridges capable of high-density recording, making it possible to sufficiently reduce the occurrence of errors such as dropouts, and ensuring high reliability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a magnetic disk cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the magnetic disk cartridge taken along line AA' in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a scanning electron micrograph showing the shape of the fibers constituting the liner of the magnetic disk cartridge of this example, and FIG. 4 shows the third fiber with foreign matter such as dust attached.
This is a scanning electron micrograph showing the shape of the fiber shown in the figure. (1)...Magnetic disk cartridge (11), (3
1)...Jacket (19), (39)...Liner (37)...Lifter (41>...Magnetic disk (51)...Hub (61)...Shutter

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A disc cartridge in which a disc-shaped information recording/reproducing means capable of recording/reproducing information is rotatably housed in a jacket, comprising: a space between the jacket and the information recording/reproducing means; is a disk cartridge characterized by having a cleaning means mainly made of fibers having micropores formed on the surface thereof.